longer in asserting themselves and what is now considered a "formal"
handwriting was not developed till late in life. There were, and still
are, two divisions or classes of handwriting, the professional and
personal; with the first the action is mechanical and exhibits few, if
any, traces of personality. Yet in the oldest manuscripts studied and
consulted there are certain defined characteristics plainly shown. The
handwritings of historical and celebrated personages coincide to a
remarkable degree with their known virtues and vices, as criticized
and detailed by their biographers.

As the art of writing became general, its form varied more, and more,
becoming gradually less formal, and each person wrote as was easiest
to himself.

Education, as a rule, has a far from beneficial effect upon
handwriting; an active brain creates ideas too fast to give the hand
time to form the letters clearly, patiently and evenly, the matter,
not the material, being to the writer of primary importance.

So as study increased among all classes, writing degenerated from its
originally clear, regular lettering into every style of penmanship.

If the subject of handwriting, as a test of personality is carefully
studied, it will be found that immediate circumstances greatly
influence it; anxiety or great excitement of any kind, illness or any
violent emotion, will for the moment greatly affect the writing.
Writing depends upon so many things--a firm grasp of the pen, a
pliability of the muscles, clearness of vision and brain power--even
the writing materials, pens, ink and paper, all make a difference. It
is not strange, then, that with so many causes upon which it depends,